Kross-European Song Contest of 1964
This was the 39th edition of the contest and was held in May 1964. Kross Company again collaborated with RECORDZA and EmbeX for the edition of the contest. The executive producer was Felix Dahlman from Sweden. He previously worked on the Junior contest and after great success was invited to try the adult contest. The assistant disaster was Kiana Ratz who has been in the role since 1958 (6 years) and been working on the contest since 1952 (12 years) The contest would start on Tuesday 5th May 1964 with the first semi final, continue through to Thursday 7th May 1964 with the second semi final and end with the grand final on Saturday 9th May 1964. Automatic qualifiers would return with the big five of Switzerland, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Italy and the host country. Malta would withdraw after gaining independence from the United Kingdom. They had to switch broadcasters because a technical mishap during the transition and therefore did not have enough time to participate in the contest. Due to Turkey hosting, Israel withdrew which gave them a fine by the Kross Broadcasting Union. Hosting Due to Turkey's win in 1963, they were given the role of hosting in 1964. The four candidate cities of Ankara, Izmir, Adana and Istanbul were narrowed down to Istanbul. Participants The following are all the participating countries, the amount of singers, genre, language and predicted places by both bookmakers and the public compared to real results Grouping Pot 1 is usually countries related to or near automatic qualifiers, Pot 2 is usually small countries. Pot 3 and Pot 4 are usually eastern European countries, Pot 5 is usually Nordic or northern countries and Pot 6 is usually any north African countries. These are not official boundaries however. Each pot has 6 regular countries and 1 automatic qualifier. One pot will have one extra regular country which added up to 43 countries. Automatic qualifiers: * Turkey * England * France * Netherlands * Switzerland * Italy Semi Final 1 These are the countries going into the next round: * Spain * Czechoslovakia * Bulgaria * Germany * Denmark * Greece * Ireland * Norway * Australia * Italy (automatic qualifier) * England (automatic qualifier) * Turkey (automatic qualifier) Semi Final 2 The detailed jury vote has been lost aswell as the video of all songs. These are the countries going into the next round: * Iceland * Albania * Poland * Portugal * Finland * Soviet Union * Sweden * Romania * Belgium * France (automatic qualifier) * Netherlands (automatic qualifier) * Switzerland (automatic qualifier) Grand Final Awards Bekaert Awards Other Countries * Malta - due to having to switch from their colonial broadcaster to new independent broadcaster (after being given independence in 1964), said they were not able to participate in the edition. * Israel - due to Turkey winning the previous year, the Isreali broadcaster decided to withdraw late into the participating process. They were given a fine. * Scotland - due to Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom being separate entities in the contest, Scotland begins plans to debut as their own entry in 1965 or 1966. This would change the United Kingdom into England in all further contests. Northern Ireland is up for debate. * Canada - Canada continues to broadcast the contest and has not decided whether they want to try and participate or not.